The present invention relates to cameras and in particular to a camera assembly movably mounted to a musical instrument having a finger board (i.e., piano keys) for providing video, pictures or images of a front or “head-on” view of a musician's hands playing the finger board at a remote location.
A need exists for providing full, close-up, unobstructed views of a musician's hands playing a finger board instrument. Filming or videotaping of pianist's concerts have been done for years to allow audiences to view the concerts on a screen located outside of the concert venue and/or at a later time or date. However, due to the limited angles and views for filming the pianist's hands, audiences are not provided with a full unobstructed view of the piano play. A top or overhead view has been in common use, but such a view is restricted to showing a lateral movement parallel to the plane of the finger board and fails to show the vertical articulation of the musician's fingers on the piano keys. Audiences are deprived of the visual pleasure and enjoyment of the quick, complicated and yet very graceful hand movement along the piano keys. Pianists are typically filmed from the side of the piano or from the top looking down on the piano. The hand farther from the camera is often obstructed by the closer hand or the pianist's arm.
Instructional visual recordings for piano playing are similarly limited because of the inability of the prior art to provide full views of the pianist's hands without any obstructions and/or at a closer view point.
Prior art discloses movable cameras as part of surveillance systems. U.S. Pat. No. 5,225,863 to Weir-Jones discloses a remotely operated camera system comprising a camera suspended below the underside of a mounting unit supported by a suspension cable and support pulleys. A traction cable extends along the travel path of the mounting unit. An optical encoder is driven by the rotation of a support pulley to sense the distance of travel of the camera mounting unit.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,027,329 to Coutta discloses a surveillance system in which one or more cameras are moveable along a rail assembly suspended from a ceiling.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,241,380 to Benson, et al discloses a surveillance system comprising a track positioned along a selected path, a moveable carriage supported by the track, a pair of electrical conductors mounted adjacent and parallel to the track to provide power to a drive assembly mounted on the carriage, and video cameras mounted to the carriage for monitoring regions adjacent the selected path. Control signals for controlling placement of the carriage along the track are transmitted on the conductors to the carriage.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,614,468 to Nordmann discloses a monitoring installation in which a monitoring unit with a camera is suspended from a trolley that rolls or glides by one traction rope or cable which pulls the trolley. The traction rope or cable is disposed within a hollow beam. The position of the trolley along the beam is monitored by an optical device mounted on the trolley which reads markings on the beam. Electrical conductors extending along a path parallel to the traction rope transmit the signals generated by the reading of the markings.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,191,507 to Peltier, et al discloses a modular conveyor system comprising a plurality of track sections with coils forming a continuous track, a moving element containing thrust producing magnets, a linear encoder strip, and load-bearing wheels constrained to ride or travel along the track and, and multiple linear encoder readers spaced at fixed positions along the track.
However, none of these patents disclose, teach or suggest a camera assembly used in connection with finger board instruments.